Hello to whoever this might reach,
My name is Camilo aka 'CG Prod' a Colombian born music producer and musician based in LA 8 years ago. My world gravitates around audio, music and films. Those 3 intersections are the reason I survive the pandemic, the hollywood strikes and the reason why I'm still in LA. 2024 is a new era for me. It's the era of execution for me, but a different type of execution. This is about making my own lane in a digital scene. Yes, this has probably been done a million times and yes, I might not be what your ears listen daily but I want to make my way to an audience that can see and understand what is to create in the weird time we live in. On this blog I will tell you a little bit about my story, about my art, about what inspires me but also what is next for me. This is my guideline which consist of the next 6 months. A little taste of how I intent to deliver my music but also how I intent to re-direct the community I've built on the so many platforms I've lived on like Twitch, Instagram, Twitter, Spotify, IRL in LA and more. So where to start... I guess stories start from the beginning. but what is the beginning? the beginning is now, at least for me it feels like its now a new beginning. yes it is shaped by the past and i couldn't be here if it was not because of my past. But this time is different. New beginnings is about letting go. So I will mention my past but know that I want to be define as an artist in motion. I still don't know where life is going to take me, and thats fine, I've been waiting patiently and well prepared for the now and what its next. So... here it is, a beginning.
During all my life as a music producer and musician, sharing the music to the world is one of those moments that I've always find sometimes confusing. You see... making the music is one heck of a process. It involves the most fun part of the process to be honest. No restrains and it feels like you are almost creating art for yourself and yourself only. My process in the studio is chaotic but it's what a diverse mind is expected to do. I not only have to find means and inspiration to create my own music but I also have to work on others. My music journey is more of a creative dilemma where i fight with myself to keep giving meaning to my creations. It's a duality I've always fought since I wanted to be a musician when I was a teen. It always fascinated me how creatives can balance that duality, the duality of creating for money or creating for passion. Specially the producer which is the one almost in the middle of different creative interactions with multiple artist and himself. I've always had trouble calling myself an artist. Never really liked the name and all what it carries behind. You see now-days anybody can call themselves an artist. In a way thats amazing that everybody can be an artist, but for me theres is certain craft that takes years and even your own health to get there. [by the way I'm sorry about my writing, I will not only be using slang sometimes but sometimes sentences will come as how I talk].
So I get it, even with AI anybody now can be an artist really... but what you cant hide is the chaos that involves defining your craft and your artistry. It certainly takes scars to get there and let's be real, not everybody going to care about it. They might be more interest in what is trending or what is making noise and thats fine. I already made peace with myself in those regards. I like what is trending (sometimes) but I can assure you when I see a craftsman or craftswoman, when you see a passion, a love for the art, when you can see the pain and the patience it takes for someone to create something, it does feel different. And maybe that was my whole mistake during all my life as a musician. I threw my creations to the world hoping people will appreciate that. Little do i knew that no matter how I did my marketing or made different content along with it, it didn't matter because I was not really thinking in my audience. I have to be honest, my whole music journey its basic and sometimes boring but if i can describe it briefly: I discover underground electronic music when I was 16 and got fascinated by synths and the expression of those machines. Decided to stick to only making music I could play with my synths but also perfecting that craft of performing live. I'd be honest, since I move to LA I only come to realize my music is more suitable for europe. Since I've been doing twitch, the audience there that was mostly from europe really helped me opened my eyes and I did understood that what i craft is not that well received in the US. There is underground scene but still is very hard with egos specially in LA. So I really never minded, I've always find ways to showcase my art and my music at the end of the day I'm always creating. During my journey in LA (which is another whole journey) I adapt to the environment. I learned different music expressions, met interesting artist. Created Pop, Hip-Hop, Trap and just above every other genre I could get my hands on to be in the studio with artists. That journey changed my sound, it changed my perspective and it taught me that I had to brake my own rules.
During those 8 years in LA I've engineer, produced, joined multiple bands, made a west coast tour, performed lived with synths and as a DJ but it was only until I discover blockchain in 2019 that everything kind of change for me. I've always consider myself independent. but blockchain made me realize that the new wave of artist was going to be lead up by independent artist and it got me excited. It made all clicked. Yes I created my collection of NFTs and sold couple of them. Made more money on those that on any other way of making money with my music. But the tech behind scares also a lot of the audience that just want to hear and listen to music. That's when I realized that I was catering my music to a community that didn't understood what I was building. It took me some time to put everything together again after the bear run of 2021. I didn't want to release music until I was ready. But again I was just too focus on trying to keep it on the same music universe I've always been so loyal. Never really had a proper time to experiment with new tools out there or even thinking really outside the box. I can do that easily for an artist but I haven't done that for my own music. It was only until last year that I broke my guidelines, and its funny because here I am writing another guideline, but thats the cool thing about it. Guidelines are made to be modified, adapt or destroy completely. So this guideline might be fixed as we go, and thats the beauty of it. I've always thought u had it to have all together from the start. No artist knows really what its doing. The artist just flows and learns. In a way I learned that from developers and founders. We fix as we go. Since I'm building something with tech and onchain I have to adapt and learn to let go. Maybe I inspire others to do it the right way, or to figure it out the way I'm still figuring out. But as long as I keep going, thats all that matters.
So let's get to it.
The Content
6 months
6 Tracks (Is my initial plan so far, I have a lot of music but I want to start releasing this new experimental tracks that fit very well the new vibe I'm going for)
1 Music Video Shot in San Francisco on April
Synthesizer stems out as Synthbit 2.0 (please see https://opensea.io/collection/synthbit to get an idea of what I mean)
IRL Showcases in LA
Artworks and photography
This blog which will become the newsletter of my music journey
And more extra content that will go along with everything
Theres no rules on how I am going to promote this or the platforms I am going to use. Only thing I know is I do want to make it easier for people to listen to my music but I want to have sophisticated tools for people that want to go ahead and support me in any way.
I will get this on a road map properly but wanted to start with a blog. Opening up my thoughts to you. After months of hard work and creativity this is what I have in mind to drop my music:
The Plan
Over the next half year, I'll be releasing couple of brand new tracks. They are my first breakbeats/downtempo songs I've done. Each track will first be released on the blockchain one week before it becomes available on DSP (Spotify, Apple Music). This approach not only gives you exclusive early access but also lets you own a piece of my music in a unique way. Either you mint it, subscribe to it, buy merch, go to my events, it's all up to you. I'm just facilitating the access of it. If you can't support it, you can share it (that always been free).
The Tools
To support me you can use:
Zora
Tips on Warpcast (degen for ex.)
Sound xyz
hypersub
Bonfire
My website products
IRL or Virtual events
There are tools I will add to this list, as you know everything is changing constantly and I want to be able to diversify how I interact with the audience I'm building.
Like I said before I will put this on a road map, my first track will be dropping on August 19 with DSP release on August 26. After that it will be a track per month.
This release journey will show me the path of how I want to interact with my audience and the way I can monetize it better. I welcome any ideas and If you got to the bottom of this blog you are indeed a real one.
Every week I will create a post on here to update and tell you a little bit more about my story and who I am. Excited to start a new journey.
